Egyptians pessimistic about upcoming parliamentary elections. CAIRO — During a protest staged by physically disabled protesters on Monday, a question was directed to a girl in her early twenties: “What do you expect in the next parliamentary elections?”
She replied, “Elections? What elections are you talking about? Ones that might bring further injustice to these people or ones that will liberate them?” On the streets of the capital, it is difficult to find any indication that three weeks from now, voters must cast their votes on who should be their representatives in the next Egyptian parliament — the same parliament charged with selecting the assembly that will create Egypt’s new constitution.
Instead the streets of Cairo are filled with fear and sorrow. The group of physically disabled protesters, stationed in front of the ministerial cabinet headquarters, threatened that they would commit collective suicide if the Prime Minister Essam Sharaf did not meet with them. Egypt's Secularists Try to Harness Sleeping Giant. The Emerging Political Spectrum in Egypt – Egypt's Transition. Egypt: 'A new political left is emerging' By Alastair Beach March 26, 2011 -- Al Masry Al Youm -- Gehan Shaaban has come a long way since her youthful days as a radical Trotskyist student.
In the early 1990s she joined forces with a small group of far-left political activists in Egypt and founded an organisation called the Revolutionary Socialists. They were inspired by radical Palestinian-British politician Tony Cliff, who was born in 1917 to a Jewish family living in the Holy Land and became a fervent anti-Zionist after emigrating to the UK.
In those days, said Shaaban, things were very bad for the left. “There was no movement at all”, she said. But now things are beginning to change. The writing was very much on the wall during the leftist Tagammu Party conference in March, when 73 members resigned due to their exasperation with leader Refaat al-Saeed. Shaaban joined the alliance with a Trotskyist party she helped form last year, the Socialist Renewal Current. Yet in many ways it all sounds too good to be true. Three political blocs emerging as major players in Egyptian elections. Political parties in Egypt are preparing for the upcoming November parliamentary elections by forming electoral alliances and agreeing on final candidate lists.
Three blocs have emerged so far: the Democratic Alliance for Egypt, the Egyptian Bloc, and the Third Way Coalition. The parliamentary elections are scheduled for November 28th and will be conducted in three stages with two-week intervals, under full judicial supervision. They are the first elections scheduled after the January 25 revolution that ended the regime of President Hosni Mubarak. According to the constitutional declaration, which was passed by a referendum in March, the new parliament's first task will be to elect a constituent assembly to prepare a new constitution within six months after the parliamentary elections. Changes to the electoral laws On Sunday (September 25th), the government approved amendments to the People's Assembly and the Shura Council election laws.
After the Arab Spring: Islam, democracy, bikinis and polygamy. Yemenis women show off their fists paintd in the colors of five national flags: Yemen, Libya, Syria, Tunisia and Egypt.
How Islam will fit with democracy is a hot topic following the Arab Spring uprisingsStrict and moderate forms of Islam are discussed in Libya, Egypt and TunisiaTurkey's democracy is seen as a model by some (CNN) -- It's not often that the issue of polygamy makes it to the top of the political agenda. But in the past week it's become a litmus test for the course of the Arab spring, and part of the debate about the compatibility of Islam and democracy.
Declaring that Libya was liberated, interim Prime Minister Mustafa Abdul-Jalil said last Sunday that laws restricting polygamy would be nullified. Islamic Shariah law would be the basic source of legislation, he said, and new banks would comply with Islam's prohibition of interest and speculation. Ghannounchi's views matter. Tunisia suffers election violence Real elections of the Arab Spring Cost of the Arab Spring. Egypt’s Shias to form political party, run in elections.